Shayne Gostisbehere clears waivers

After the Philadelphia Flyers’ shock move yesterday, the 30 other teams around the NHL decided to pass on claiming defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere on waivers.

After an unstable couple of seasons — being healthy scratched by head coach Alain Vigneault multiple times, and spending his time working his way through every role he possibly could as a defenseman — Gostisbehere will be staying within the organization. Now that he has cleared waivers, the Flyers can either assign him to the taxi squad (most likely) or send him all the way down to Lehigh Valley.

No matter what road Philadelphia decides to go down, a total of $1.025 million will be taken off the Flyers’ total cap with him buried in the taxi squad or the minors. This opens up some possibilities, but with the team needing to recall another defender — both Sam Morin and Nate Prosser have a $700,000 cap hit — the financial difference is minimal.

The 30 decisions to opt for not claiming Gostisbehere no doubt came down to taking on his cap hit of $4.5-million that continues for two more seasons after this one — especially considering the league’s flat cap current situation. In the end, it was too much money to take on for the other franchises to take a gamble on the defenseman riding back to his offensive self.

Gostisbehere has spent 7 seasons with the Flyers, scoring 56 goals and 210 points through 365 games.